Make no mistake - Oracle faces a major "uphill battle" if its to convince the European Union to step aside of its planned $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. And recent comments by the EU's antitrust chief has to make you wonder if the Commission might block the deal out of spite.

"Is this really more important than fixing your own health care system," Neelie Kroes, EU competition commissioner, said in a speech, adding that U.S. senators need to straighten out their priorities.

The below-the-belt comments come in response to a group of 59 U.S. senators writing a letter to Kroes last month urging her to speed up the approval for a deal that could cost thousands of American jobs should it fall through.

But no matter what the senators say, the EU seems to have a tough time accepting Oracle's takeover of Sun, and more specifically, the EU remains concerned over what Oracle will do with the open source database company MySQL once it has control, considering Oracle owns its own paid database software. Because of this, the EU worries that Oracle might refuse to license MySQL to some companies or for specific uses in order to push its own paid software.

European regulators have set a January 27 deadline to decide whether or not to approve the deal.

Canadian outfit Absolute Software, maker of the popular LoJack for Laptops, said this week it has purchased LANrev security software product suite from Germany's Pole Position Software GmbH for around $14.6 million in cash and stock, PCMag.com reports.

The Canadian security software company said would pay $9.6 million in cash, with $2.5 million and 500,000 common shares to be paid over three years.

"Over the next two years, 20-40 percent of our current customers would be using this product," Absolute Chief Executive John Livingston told Reuters.

It's a low-risk deal for Absolute, who expects to save around $4 million in tax related to the transaction. And according to analyst Gabriel Leung of Paradigm Capital, the deal is likely to have a positive impact on Absolute's portfolio, filling in gaps "particularly in the asset management side of things."

IBM this week announced it has acquired Guardium, a real-time enterprise database monitoring and security startup. Guardium, a privately held company based in Waltham, Massachusetts, focuses both on real-time monitoring and automating and streamlining regulatory compliance tasks.

"Organizations are grappling with government mandates, industry standards, and business demands to ensure that their critical data is protected against internal and external threats," said Arvind Krishna, general manager, IBM Information Management. "This acquisition is another significant step in our abilities to help clients govern and monitor their data, and ultimately make their information more secure throughout its lifecycle."

IBM said it will integrate Guardium within IBM's Information Management Software portfolio and sell its products through the newly created Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting organization, which is staffed by 4,000 consultants.

Oracle's buyout of Sun Microsystems, which is currently on hold pending approval of the European Union, is a pretty big deal with several thousands of jobs at stake. Partially for this reason, a group of 59 bipartisan U.S. Senators has asked European Commission regulators last week to stop dragging out its investigation and give the deal the green light.

"The EC is within is sovereign rights to set the rules for operation in its market, but with our Department of Justice having made a compelling case that the merger does not pose a threat to competition, it is fair to ask the EC for the basis on which a delay on decision making is warranted and to make a decision one way or the other," said John Kerry, D-Mass.

Should the EC delay its decision, the group of senators also asked that it provide reasoning as to why a combined Oracle and Sun shouldn't be allowed to conduct business in the 27-nation European Union, eWeek reports.

The EC, which is primarily concerned about the ramifications of Oracle gaining control over Sun's open source (and free) MySQL, has set a deadline for December 10th in making a decision.

Oracle will have to wait a little bit longer before deciding on its next step in its planned $7.4 billion takeover of Sun. That's because European Union regulators on Friday said they have extended the deadline of its review until January 27 in response to Oracle asking for more time "in order to have the opportunity to further develop its arguments in response to the Commission's concerns."

The new deadline gives Oracle six additional days to plead its case, which consists of convincing the EU that the purchase of open-source database software MySQL isn't a conflict of interest and won't hamstring competition.

While the U.S. has already approved the multi-billion dollar deal, the EU contends that should Oracle acquire Sun, it would purposely kill off the free and open-source MySQL so as not to cannibalize its own paid server database software. But Oracle has accused the EU of not understanding the database market, particularly how it applies on the open-source level.

Should the EU ultimately rule against the deal, Oracle said it would fight the decision in court.

Videoconferencing firm Tandberg was all too happy to accept Cisco's $3 billion buyout offer back at the beginning of October, but at least two investment consulting companies say Cisco's bid undervalues the firm.

The only opinions that matter at this point are those of the Tandberg's shareholders, who have yet to approve the deal. Before the agreement can go through, owners of 90 percent of the company's shares have to give it the green light, and do so by the end of the day today. There's been talk that holders of 24 percent of Tandberg stock don't plan on signing off on the deal, and should that happen, Cisco has hinted it would walk away rather than raise its offer.

"We believe we are paying a fair price for a quality asset, and our offer comes recommended by the Tandberg Board of Directors," Cisco said in a prepared statement. "Further, Cisco's general approach to M&A activities is that no acquisition should be pursued or completed if it runs counter to the broader principles of prudence and financial fairness."

But not everyone agrees with Cisco's assessment. Consultants from Panta Capital and Scott & Associates contend that Tandberg's third quarter financial results beat the consensus estimates of analysts for revenue and profit, and Cisco's offer simply isn't enough.

Dell on Tuesday announced the completion of its tender offer for Perot Systems. Under terms of the deal, Dell will accept Perot's stock at $30 per share, and in return own more than 90 percent of the company.

Completion of the acquisition forms a new business unit called Dell Services, which will provide IT services and business solutions to customers. Integrating Perot Systems also extends Dell's reach into hosting, consulting, applications and business-process outsourcing, and expands Dell's exiting managed and modular services.

"Dell Services will be a powerful organization with the extensive capabilities and global reach to address the needs of organizations of all types. The Dell and Perot Systems integration teams have been extremely productive in their planning, and we are ready to work on behalf of all our customers," Peter Altabel, the former CEO of Perot who will become president of Dell Services, said in a statement.

Oracle knows it's in for a fight with the European Union over the U.S. company's planned $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, but appears ready to go the rounds, according to a Financial Times report.

The EU is mainly concerned about whay Oracle might end up doing with Sun's MySQL code base, such as killing it off or dropping support in order to push its own non-free database package. And according to FT.com, one person close to the process says the EU is ever-so-close to issuing an official statement of objection, which is step one in blocking the deal.

It's unlikely Oracle will back down, choosing instead to wait and see what the EU decides. Should the Commission object, Oracle could choose to offer concessions or take its fight to court.

The Sun acquisition has already been given the green light by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Never underestimate the dollar power of shoes and handbags. Amazon, in a move to expand diversity in its product line, last July moved to acquire Zappos, a purveyor of shoes, bags and clothing. Now that the deal is finally closing, and Zappos’s stock has risen on the news of the buyout, Amazon has agreed to make the purchase for $1.2 billion, up from the initial stock price-based estimate of $928 million.

Zappos remains intact after the deal--a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, with headquarters in Las Vegas. No changes in Zappos’s management team are expected.

Cisco today announced its intent to acquire ScanSafe, a privately held software-as-a-service (SaaS) Web security outfit based in London and San Francisco.

Under terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay $183 million in cash and retention-based incentives for the security firm. ScanSafe's services will be integrated with Cisco AnyConnect VPN client, but that's not all ScanSafe brings to the table. Cisco will also have access to the security firm's global network of carrier-grade data centers and multi-tenant architecture, both of which will help boost Cisco's presence in cloud security products.

"With the acquisition of ScanSafe, Cisco is executing on our vision to build a borderless network security architecture that combines network and cloud-based services for advanced security enforcement," said Tom Gillis, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Security Technology Business Unit (STBU). "Cisco will provide customers the flexibility to choose the deployment model that best suits their organization and deliver anytime, anywhere protection against Web-based threats."

Cisco added that it expects Web security to be a $2.3 billion market by 2012, which would explain the company's aggressive spending as of late. Earlier this month, Cisco bid a whoppng $3 billion for Norwegian video conference company Tandberg and agreed to pony up $2.9 billion to acquire wirless equipment maker Starent Networks.